May 26, 2012 10:54 PM CDTMay 26, 2012 10:58 PM CDTGosselin: Even with a more versatile offense, homers still critical to Rangers' success

Gosselin: Even with a more versatile offense, homers still critical to Rangers' success

4/21

Louis DeLuca/Staff Photographer

Texas center fielder Josh Hamilton bobbles the ball, allowing Eric Thames to score on David Cooper's single in the top of the sixth during the Toronto Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers major league baseball game at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington on Saturday, May 26, 2012.

ARLINGTON — The Rangers were once a franchise that lived for the long ball.

Fifty-home run seasons by Alex Rodriguez, 40-homer seasons by Rafael Palmeiro and 30-homer seasons by Hank Blalock and Mark Teixeira at the start of the 2000 decade fueled the perception that the Rangers were a one-dimensional team.

But the Rangers no longer dwell exclusively in that dimension. Under manager Ron Washington, the Rangers can now pitch, catch, run and throw with the best of them. Their back-to-back American League pennants are testament to that. This is a well-rounded team.

But make no mistake about it — the home run remains a very near and dear friend of this franchise. To this point of the season, the wins and losses by the AL West leader have been tied inextricably to the four-bagger.

Nelson Cruz, Yorvit Torrealba and Mitch Moreland belted consecutive home runs in the sixth inning, and Josh Hamilton hammered a two-run shot in the 13th to power the Rangers to an 8-7 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday.

It was the 29th victory of the season for the Rangers. They have blasted 55 homers in those wins. In their 18 losses, the Rangers have hit only 15 home runs. The Rangers failed to hit homers in only eight games this season and have lost six of them.

Home runs “are big simply because we have guys who can do it,” Washington said. “But when they don’t do it, we don’t have to lose ball games. We’ve won many a game where we didn’t hit balls out of the park. I don’t want the mindset to be all or nothing. I work hard to try to keep that mindset out of here.

“Our offense has the potential to be great — but I want our offense to be versatile. You can’t live by the home run. We have to be able to do other things.”

And the Rangers can. The legs of Ian Kinsler and Elvis Andrus at the top of the order produced two runs in the first, even though the Rangers hit only one ball hard all inning.

But the sun-baked sellout crowd wanted to see some fireworks, and the Rangers finally unleashed them in the sixth with those consecutive homers from the bottom of the order.

But it doesn’t seem to matter who swings the bat for the Rangers. The leadoff hitter can go deep, the No. 9 hitter can go deep and so can everyone in between.

All nine of the team’s every-day players have homered this season, as have three of the reserves. The only position player who has not left the yard with a swing this season has been infielder Alberto Gonzalez.

The 70 homers the Rangers have slugged rank third in baseball. Leadoff hitter Kinsler, who shared the team lead with 32 a year ago, has five this season. No. 9 hitter Moreland has eight.

Hamilton leads baseball with his 20 homers, including a major league record-tying four in one game against Baltimore. He was the league’s player of the month for April, when he lashed nine homers. He already has launched 11 this month. In addition to his four-homer game, Hamilton has a two-homer game this season. So do Moreland and Mike Napoli.

The Rangers have had 12 multi-home run games this season, including a six against the Red Sox, a five against the Orioles and fours against the Mariners and Blue Jays.

“Our offense has guys who can do different things, do what the game requires,” said Michael Young. “This team is very capable of living in gaps. You can knock in a lot of runs by driving balls into the gap, and that’s what this team does really well.

“We don’t need home runs to score and we don’t need home runs to win. If we happen to get them, great.”

The Rangers got them Saturday and, yes, it was great for the 47,430 in attendance.

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.

About Rick Gosselin

MOST UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE ON THE JOB:
Sitting at the hotel bar with Jerry Jones that night in Orlando, Fla., in March 1994 when he decided he'd had enough of Jimmy Johnson as coach of the Cowboys.

SOMETHING PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME:I played hockey for a media all-star team in Detroit and once scored a goal against the Detroit Red Wings Old-Timers in a charity game at Olympia. As a high school player, I once scored a hat trick in a game at the Olympia. Love those "Original Six" buildings.

IF I HAD TWO SPARE HOURS, I WOULD:Take a golf lesson and learn how to hit a driver.

MOST MEMORABLE SPORTING EVENT I'VE COVERED:Impossible to pick just one, so I'll give you five, in no particular order:
- 1, My first Super Bowl - X between the Cowboys and Steelers.
- 2, 1983 NCAA basketball championship game between North Carolina State and Houston.
- 3, 1984 Orange Bowl between Miami and Nebraska.
- 4, 1971 baseball All-Star Game in Detroit, where all the future Hall of Famers homered and Reggie Jackson banged one off the light tower.
- 5, Speedskater Bonnie Blair's world-record sprints at 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.
- Honorable mention: Troy Aikman's first college start as a freshman at Oklahoma against Kansas. (He lost.)

Hometown: Detroit

Education: Graduated from Michigan State in 1972, then spent two years working news for United Press International in Detroit, two years working for UPI sports in New York, nine years working as UPI's Midlands sports editor in Kansas City, four years as Chiefs/NFL beat reporter for the Kansas City Star, two years as Cowboys writer for The Dallas Morning News and 12 years as the NFL writer for The News.